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Thorpe Park: General Discussion

Even if Thorpe are planning on bringing back a Feb half term event (heaven forbid they do) then why on earth would Flying Fish have to close now? It wouldn't. I can only assume it is somewhat buggered. Either that or they want to save the operating costs.

:)
 
It makes perfect sense really, when you use Merlin logic.

Spend loads of money successfully changing the image of the park to be more family friendly.

Close family friendly rides to save money, and recoup cost of spending lots of money.

It is an odd decision, even if something was broke, I would expect efforts to be made to get it open again this season. Who knows why Merlin do anything these days :)

Ian
 
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Thorpe's operational standards/procedures really need a kick up the arse don't they?

As for a half term opening, I won't be visiting, the last ones were just so awful and pointless, can't see the park being able to fix the issues if they have to close a ride like Fish a month early...
 
It may be badly damaged and require extended maintenance to get it ready for next season (maybe a whole motor needs replacing). Plus September is one of the quietest times of the year so it won't be hugely missed. Also October brings Fright Nights and the park is not suitable for under 12s at that time anyway.
 
jon81uk said:
It may be badly damaged and require extended maintenance to get it ready for next season (maybe a whole motor needs replacing). Plus September is one of the quietest times of the year so it won't be hugely missed. Also October brings Fright Nights and the park is not suitable for under 12s at that time anyway.
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Can't be badly damaged as it was operating yesterday...
 
John said:
In a rather odd move, Flying Fish is now closed until the end of the season (http://www.thorpepark.com/rides/flying-fish/).
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Four theories:
  • The ride must close imminently for unplanned urgent maintenance.
  • The ride is closing to be extensively re-themed as part of some new IP tie-in deal (unlikely but not impossible)
  • The ride is closing during quieter months to scrimp and save a little bit.
  • The park didn't manage to do everything they wanted to do for Fright Nights on-budget. They were asked by Merlin to cut a maze and came up with this as a compromise, which Merlin accepted in lieu of a cut maze.
I think the last of these is the most likely story.
 
I was on the fish yesterday and it ran as usual?

One other comment to make though was that everything was on either one train operation or they'd closed baggage holds such as The Swarm's. It made what could have been a great day a really quite crap one.
 
Thomas said:
I was on the fish yesterday and it ran as usual?

One other comment to make though was that everything was on either one train operation or they'd closed baggage holds such as The Swarm's. It made what could have been a great day a really quite crap one.
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Unfortunately that is what they seem to do on quiet days, which is not acceptable.
 
It's crap, it just slows everything down. Plus they had no staff whatsoever, and the ones there seem to be suffering from end of season fatigue.
 
Thomas said:
It's crap, it just slows everything down. Plus they had no staff whatsoever, and the ones there seem to be suffering from end of season fatigue.
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Yep, I was there on Sunday and whilst coasters were on two trains, dispatch times were so slow! 6 minutes on Colossus...
Unfortunately this is the norm for Thorpe, their operations are pretty awful.
 
Thomas said:
I was on the fish yesterday and it ran as usual?

One other comment to make though was that everything was on either one train operation or they'd closed baggage holds such as The Swarm's. It made what could have been a great day a really quite crap one.
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Where do your bags go when they close baggage holds?
 
jmc said:
Where do your bags go when they close baggage holds?
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On The Swarm you just leave it on the station floor as it means there is only one train in operation. Not sure about the other rides, I mean you could just take bags on X to be honest...
 
Thomas said:
I was on the fish yesterday and it ran as usual?

One other comment to make though was that everything was on either one train operation or they'd closed baggage holds such as The Swarm's. It made what could have been a great day a really quite crap one.
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Did you get on every ride at least once? Did you wait more than 20 minutes for anything? If you can still ride everything in one day with minimal waits why does it matter if they are on one train operations to keep costs down. Same for baggage rooms, if they are only using one train on a quite day they are a waste of money on staff wages.
 
jon81uk said:
Did you get on every ride at least once? Did you wait more than 20 minutes for anything? If you can still ride everything in one day with minimal waits why does it matter if they are on one train operations to keep costs down. Same for baggage rooms, if they are only using one train on a quite day they are a waste of money on staff wages.
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Because if a 20 minute queue can be prevented then it should be! People go on quiet days expecting to be able to reride everything a lot, and I can see their frustration if lacklustre operations stop this from happening.
Also, with the amount of money that Thorpe makes they don't need to keep costs down. If they are only using one train then they don't need baggage rooms, but they shouldn't be running one train!
 
Jamie said:
Because if a 20 minute queue can be prevented then it should be! People go on quiet days expecting to be able to reride everything a lot, and I can see their frustration if lacklustre operations stop this from happening.
Also, with the amount of money that Thorpe makes they don't need to keep costs down. If they are only using one train then they don't need baggage rooms, but they shouldn't be running one train!
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A 20 minute queue is nothing, you will still easily get everything in at Thorpe (unlike AT where you have to walk much further to do the whole park). I feel ill if I do too many rides to quick anyways. I would rather they saved wage costs and didn't keep increasing food costs again and again.
 
Jamie said:
Also, with the amount of money that Thorpe makes they don't need to keep costs down.
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And here-in lies the whole problem with Merlin. It doesn't seem to matter how much an attraction makes, they're all subjected to the same budget cuts and penny pinching. If anything, the way Merlin runs, parks seem to be better off when they make a little less money than expected!

Thorpe had a massive misfire with Swarm, and as a result they seemed to have loads of money invested into a new brand identity, X re-theme, Angry Birds, and Fright Nights. However, it still all comes back to Merlin budgeting. Thorpe could be making more money than any other park in the UK, but if it meant saving money they'd still only be given the budget to run one train on a lot of their rides.
 
Last year at fright nights preview Colossus, Stealth and Inferno were all on 1 train with queues of nearly an hour (Inferno queue went into the extension, Colossus reached the shop). 20 minutes isn't too bad but waiting as long as you would on a fairly busy Sunday in queues that barely move is not acceptable.

Thorpe's operations have never been great, but it seems they're getting even worse.
 
That day still goes down as one of the worst organised days I have ever witnessed at at theme park.

You've got to be really good at being bad to operate at nearly 5 minutes per dispatch on N:I

Seems like they're continuing the trend.

The quiet days are the bonus theme park days that encourage people to go along because they get more rides in, it's just not right to be running them so slowly.

The dire trend for this park continues, as it does across Merlin parks.
 
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